Introduction

The Division of Pediatric Cardiology at OHSU, directed by Dr. Laurie Armsby, includes thirteen physicians, two nurse practitioners, four fellows, nurses, technicians and administrative staff. Expertise in  the subspecialties of Interventional Cath, EP, Echo, MRI, Heart Failure, Pulmonary Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, Heart Transplant, and Adult Congenital Heart Disease are represented in our faculty. We provide the highest quality care to children with heart disease referred to our center from throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Irving Shen together with Dr. Ashok Muralidaran and Richard Reed perform all state-of-the-art pediatric cardiac surgical procedures with the exception of heart transplantation. The surgical team are actively involved in all aspects of peri-operative care and fellow education.

The Pediatric ICU, wards, OR, echo lab and clinic are located in Doernbecher Children's Hospital, a free-standing academic Children's Hospital providing the widest range of health care services for children in the region. Doernbecher connects via bridge to OHSU Hospital where the ED, NICU, Cath Lab, Cardiac MRI, and Adult services are located.

Fellowship Program

The primary goal of our Fellowship Training Program is to provide you with a solid and comprehensive foundation of knowledge and experience. You will be exposed to all aspects of pediatric cardiology, and work at a pace which is appropriately challenging, yet facilitates the educational opportunity in each experience. One of the outstanding strengths of our program is that we are able to "tailor" your training in a way that best suits your anticipated career direction, while at the same time providing a solid foundation of the fundamentals required by the Sub-Board of Pediatric Cardiology. 

We are proud that our program produces exceptionally trained graduates with the skills and opportunities to become leaders in any aspect of the field.

Fellowship Composition and Framework

The first year fellow classes alternate between one and two fellows, to maintain a total of four pediatric cardiology fellows at all times. The three-year curriculum, covered in detail below, consists of 24 months of clinical rotations, and 12 months of research. Fellows are provided 4 weeks of vacation each year. We are able to accommodate flexibility within the schedule to adjust to individual preferences or requests;including the ability to cluster research rotations. We also offer fourth year subspecialty fellowships in cardiac catheterization, echocardiography, and research.

Typical Schedule	Consult (m/yr)	Echo (m/yr)	Cath (m/yr)	Elective (m/yr)	Research (m/yr)
1st Year	3.5	4.5	2	0.5	1.5
2nd Year	3	0	1	0	8
3rd Year	2.5	3	2	2	2.5

Educational and Research Opportunities

The Division offers a stipend so that fellows may attend national meetings. Additional funds are also available from the Department to support fellows at any meetings at which they present abstracts.Quarterly cardiac pathology sessions are given by Drs. Michael Silberbach and Brian Morrison to review our cardiac specimens. In addition, the fellows are encouraged to spend some of their elective time reviewing cardiac specimens and/or to arrange elective time at another institution with emphasis on cardiac pathology. 

Teaching

OHSU has an outstanding medical school and pediatric residency program. There are many opportunities available to our fellows for teaching, either in didactic sessions, or patient-based teaching on the inpatient service. Each fellow is assigned at least one noon conference to present to the pediatric residents over the course of fellowship. Each fellow also prepares and presents a pediatric grand rounds talk, with faculty mentorship, on a clinical topic or interesting clinical case. In addition, the fellows are integral in the teaching of residents and medical students on the Pediatric Cardiology Rotation, and provide teaching to residents in the PICU, DNCC and ward. 

Advisors/Mentors

Each fellow is assigned a Scholarly Oversight Committee during the first nine months of fellowship. This committee will consist of three faculty members including: pediatric cardiology associate program director in charge of research (Dr. Kathryn Holmes) or pediatric cardiology faculty and at least one faculty member outside the division. This body will meet with the fellow once during the first year and biannually thereafter. The fellow will present his/her research activities to the committee, which will provide constructive feedback and will monitor the activity to ensure that it meets the scholarly activity requirements of the American Board of Pediatrics.    Each fellow will select or be assigned a research mentor late in the first year of fellowship. This mentor should be able to commit adequate time to supervise the fellow's research project and assure the fellow's success with their project(s). This fellow mentor assignment may change during fellowship if the relationship is not functioning optimally. 

Evaluations

Fellows are asked to provide regular evaluations of the conferences, rotations, faculty and the program itself. These are written evaluations, which are compiled and saved in a completely anonymous and confidential format. The program director will meet with all the fellows as a group at least twice each year;ideas, suggestions, requests and grievances are all seriously considered and acted upon. The fellows have a significant role in the continuous process of evaluation, refinement and improvement of the fellowship program.  The faculty meets bi-annually to provide meaningful, constructive milestone based evaluations of each fellow's performance and progress. These evaluations are then reviewed with the fellow by the program director and the clinical competency committee chair on a bi-annual basis. Separate skills evaluations, primarily involving echocardiography, catheterization and electrophysiology are provided to the fellows on an annual basis.

Application

Required application documents (submitted through ERAS) include:

• Completion of the on-line ERAS application (including personal statement, curriculum vitae, hobbies, USMLE scores, etc.)
  
• Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) from the dean of your medical school
  
• Medical school transcript
  
• A letter of verification from the program director(s) of prior residency training, including dates, location and verification of completion 
  
• Verification of any previous staff positions
  
• Two letters of reference from faculty at your current training program or professional colleagues if not in training (including the evaluation form) 

Evaluation form

Laurie Armsby, MD
Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program Director
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Pediatric Cardiology
Oregon Health & Science University
armsbyl@ohsu.edu

Liz Schultz
Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program Coordinator
Division of Pediatric Cardiology
Oregon Health & Science University
503 494-9899
fax 503 494-2824
schulliz@ohsu.edu